Loving the "blue" macaws!

[Gillis]

Hi everyone, I have never been fortunate enough to meet a macaw (living in upstate NY affords extremely little exposure to even the most common of birds) but I find them really intriguing and hope to befriend one someday when I have more experience.

I had a general question, really. I was researching some info on the "blue" macaws - hyacinth, glaucous, lears, spix, and I was wondering if anyone has ever met enough of them to know if they have similar personalities to the other non-blue macaws. Are they basically the same? What are they like? Actually, since I've never met one, I can't really even say what a "regular" macaw is like.

I would never hope to own one - they belong in husbandry programs - but I can still be curious about them and think they are absolutely beautiful!

Which is your favorite? Mine is the Spix. Not because it is the most endangered (extinct?) but because, to me, they are the most striking and I love their expressions. Has anyone been fortunate enough to see/work with one?

 

[MangoandKiwi]

I love the Spix!
I really hope they won't go extinct. Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has the future of these birds in their hands now by the looks of it. I read a bit about their work in the book "Birds of Pandemonium" (love that book, it's such a great read)

 

[Birdman666]

1. I've played with lots of Hys, and they are one of my all time favorites, just for their big goofy personalities.

2. If you play with a Lear or Spix Macaw in this country, it isn't legally. You're not supposed to have them. They are on the verge of extinction, and are captive breeding only. Officially, there aren't any.

(Unofficially... there may be a private breeding collection - somewhere... started by a wealthy private bird collector in the Miami area - (i.e. smuggled birds) which was moved to somewhere in the Western United States being cultivated by an experienced and well intended macaw breeder. Waiting to be discovered (about twenty to thirty years from now) as a somehow thriving colony of escaped breeders, that established itself in the wild here in the US. (No one knows how it happened. It's a mystery. But one day they just showed up en mass... ) Yeah, you can't even place them legally. And since we don't know which direction the red tape will take, or what will happen to the birds in the meantime... better that someone who really knows what they are doing, and actually CARES if they go extinct, does something about it. (I don't know if any of them made it to Al Wabra or not... I only made a few phone calls to see what could be done... if, hypothetically speaking, all these rare and endangered birds existed...) They didn't of course! I made the whole thing up... http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/50468-s-not-just-animal-smugglers.html

3. Glaucous macaws - have GONE extinct. Don't believe ANYONE has since the early 19th century.

 

[Birdman666]

I love the Spix!
I really hope they won't go extinct. Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has the future of these birds in their hands now by the looks of it. I read a bit about their work in the book "Birds of Pandemonium" (love that book, it's such a great read)

AL WABRA is doing amazing work!!!

(Officially) there are 79 of these left in the world... 60 of them are at Al Wabra.

Unofficially, there may be a few more than that, and the number may be closer to 100-ish.

Here's your Spix Fix:

http://awwp.alwabra.com/

 

[Birdman666]

I love the Spix!
I really hope they won't go extinct. Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has the future of these birds in their hands now by the looks of it. I read a bit about their work in the book "Birds of Pandemonium" (love that book, it's such a great read)

Just suppose one day, later on in life, you can see a flock of these birds flying wild here in the Western US... Wouldn't THAT be something?

How did they get here? We don't know...

Like I say, I hope I live long enough to see the big reveal.

 

[chris-md]

Spixs are adorable. To me they look like a blue mutation of the severe macaw.

 

[MangoandKiwi]

Birdman666;
So what IF you get a phone call that you are the sole beneficiary of a great great great aunt of your great great grandfather who has in a very stuffy house a cage with ... BOOM.. two Spix Macaws. What would you do?

 

[Birdman666]

Birdman666;
So what IF you get a phone call that you are the sole beneficiary of a great great great aunt of your great great grandfather who has in a very stuffy house a cage with ... BOOM.. two Spix Macaws. What would you do?

JUST TAKE CARE OF THEM, AND NEVER TELL A SOUL... most folks wouldn't know what it was anyway. THEY WOULDN'T BE OUT AND ABOUT BIRDS, THAT'S FOR SURE!

Maybe, set up a nest box for them if they were so inclined.

They will instantly be confiscated by fish and game, and the Estate of the person who died would be fined up the ying-yang! (Possible jail time if the person was still alive.)

Personally, I'd contact Al Wabra on the sly, and see if there wasn't a way we couldn't smuggle them back out of the country, on someone's personal jet, who had diplomatic immunity perhaps... and into their program. THAT, TO ME, IS WHERE THESE BIRDS BELONG!

Actually, that already happened once in Colorado. (Single, not a pair.) The bird was confiscated and shipped back to Brazil... (where it promptly died under mysterious circumstances!)

 

[Mekaisto]

Spix's are fairly playful, and very very social - always stick together in a tight flock.
Lears are quite stand-offish and don't play much but do spend a lot of time grooming and socialising with each other. They nest in cliff-faces which is unusual for parrots.
Hys are probably the most brave and outgoing of the lot - very inquisitive.
Glaucous are extinct....

Of course all the blue macaws I've seen/worked with have been breeding birds (apart from some Hys) and the personality of a wild bird vs. a pet is very different.

 

[Kyoto]

I love the Spix!
I really hope they won't go extinct. Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has the future of these birds in their hands now by the looks of it. I read a bit about their work in the book "Birds of Pandemonium" (love that book, it's such a great read)

AL WABRA is doing amazing work!!!

(Officially) there are 79 of these left in the world... 60 of them are at Al Wabra.

Unofficially, there may be a few more than that, and the number may be closer to 100-ish.

Here's your Spix Fix:

Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation

This makes me want to rethink my life and go to vet school just to become an intern there! What an amazing job that would be.

 

[Birdman666]

I love the Spix!
I really hope they won't go extinct. Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has the future of these birds in their hands now by the looks of it. I read a bit about their work in the book "Birds of Pandemonium" (love that book, it's such a great read)

AL WABRA is doing amazing work!!!

(Officially) there are 79 of these left in the world... 60 of them are at Al Wabra.

Unofficially, there may be a few more than that, and the number may be closer to 100-ish.

Here's your Spix Fix:

Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation

This makes me want to rethink my life and go to vet school just to become an intern there! What an amazing job that would be.

PM the person above you... (Mikaisto) I believe that is the only person on the board that has actually been there and done that.

 

[Gillis]

I love the Spix!
I really hope they won't go extinct. Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar has the future of these birds in their hands now by the looks of it. I read a bit about their work in the book "Birds of Pandemonium" (love that book, it's such a great read)

AL WABRA is doing amazing work!!!

(Officially) there are 79 of these left in the world... 60 of them are at Al Wabra.

Unofficially, there may be a few more than that, and the number may be closer to 100-ish.

Here's your Spix Fix:

Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation

Thanks for the link! I love what they are doing and can't wait to see where they will take these birds in the next few decades. It would be so amazing to bring them back to the point where they can begin to perform reintroductions.

Spix's are fairly playful, and very very social - always stick together in a tight flock.
Lears are quite stand-offish and don't play much but do spend a lot of time grooming and socialising with each other. They nest in cliff-faces which is unusual for parrots.
Hys are probably the most brave and outgoing of the lot - very inquisitive.
Glaucous are extinct....

Of course all the blue macaws I've seen/worked with have been breeding birds (apart from some Hys) and the personality of a wild bird vs. a pet is very different.

Thanks for your input! Makes me love the Spix's even more. I always love hearing about their wild behaviors as opposed to their "pet" behaviors. Ultimately I feel like our friends are still wild birds who just happen to have adapted their behaviors to living with a human flock.

 

[Birdman666]

The problem with re-introducing them into the wild are the people who will go right back to poaching them... Brazli is long on promises when it comes to things they're gonna do, but short on actual resources and follow through.

You do your part WITH CONSIDERABLE EFFORT, they promise to do their part (and say they have, but it isn't entirely true), and the problems continue...

Without protection, people will see dollar signs, and an opportunity to get a lot of money just by catching a few birds...